The conventional spectroscopic methods having a predetermined energy resolution apply the electronic excitation of solids or the interference effect of light by use of electromagnetic waves or particle beams. Based on these principles, the industries have already practically used a pulse height analyzer, a superconducting detector, a dispersive crystal, and a diffractive grating.
So-far developed energy discrimination methods by use of the current semiconductor detector and the like receive at most one photon or particle within a discrimination lapse of time of its circuit system and convert the energy of the received photon or particle into electron pulses, thus detecting its wave height value. That is, in the case of pulse height analysis, the count rate is determined by the processing power of a wave height discrimination circuit. In reality, the wave height accuracy and the count rate that determine an energy resolution balance with each other; by a state-of-the-art high counting rate digital wave height analyzer, a maximum count rate is set to 250 k counts/s while the resolution is 150 eV at 5 keV. A count rate of 250 k counts is equivalent to a time resolution of 20 ms in the case of estimating the transport of a heavy element impurity or the electron temperature of magnetic confinement high temperature plasma. On the other hand, in the case of the superconducting detector, the energy level of one photon is converted into a rise in temperature, so that the count rate is limited as in the case of pulse height analysis.
Further, in the case of the X-ray spectrum measurement technologies, the energy resolution is improved by more accurately constituting a minute structure as small as a wavelength or by decreasing thermal noise through ultra-cold cooling by employing a substance having a low excitation energy level as the photo-receptive element.
Prior-art search has found no conventional equivalents of the electromagnetic wave/particle beam spectroscopic method and instrument of the present invention because they are different from conventional ones in principle.